29 November 2009

Welcome to 2009. The long awaited 17 again train is now on the rails. In case you have just come here and haven't followed the links, "17 again" is a blog train that I am on. We all answer a series of questions as if we were 17 and include pictures. I have been named the TRAIN DRIVER as I am 17 NOW so my post will be a nice comparison to all the others! I am planning on making a LO but as I am at skl, it's kinda tricky! It will come, I promise.. anyway on with the train choo choo...!
Most of the pictures are for my photography A Level!

28 November 2009

As promised Here is the Tutorial for making these:
The flowers are very simple to make once you have the basic petal shape figured out. Honestly, trial and error and you will get it. As I am not at home and can't photograph me making the flowers I have used the pictures for this tutorial off this lovely site http://foldingtrees.com/ Go check it out!
The real name for these flowers is a Kusudama ball. You are supposed to make lots of them and stick them all together but I loved them the way they are!
what you need:

6 pieces of paper 7cm by 7cm ( I used thick scrapbooking patterned paper because it makes them more sturdy.)

strong glue (PVA is fine!)

Clothes pegs

pretty ribbon for the middles

1.Place the paper like this and fold to make a triangle.

2. Fold both the corners up to the middle to make a diamond shape.

3. Now fold the corners at the top in half so the edges line up with the side of the diamond.
4. Now open up the flaps you have just made. The best way is to put your thumb in the triangle and push it out. (takes a bit of practice!)
5. Fold the tops of the flaps down so they line up with the edge and then fold the whole flap in half along the crease.
6. you should end up with something that looks like the above. Put strong glue on the flabs and stick together. This is where you will need the peg. If you have used stong paper, trying to get the petal to stay in that shape whilst the glue drys is difficult. I clamped it on the middle fold.
7. Make 5 more petals. Here comes the tricky part..glue them all together. a line of Glue along each side works well. Also try doing two at a time. Again the pegs are real useful but patience really is the key.

As you can see from the picture, there will be a whole in the middle of the flower, so I placed this pom pom wire in it to give it a festive feel.

Also remember that because of the way it is folded, both sides of the paper you use can be seen. Double sided paper therefore works beautifully!

Hope this is helpful. Any questions please comment, would love to know what you think. Also go check out the website as the tutorial there is very good!

26 November 2009

I am in a very happy mood because I didn't have hockey today. Yes I was a good girl and got my work finished! That means I can now do this in prep (secretly!) Actually very funny story, my teacher just came in and I blagged my way through saying this was a site where I got my pictures for photography! Lol! He is around 60 and teaches chemistry ( not that there is anything wrong with this!) so I think I am pretty safe!

speaking of photography, I am looking at a new artist and am completly taken by her work...

The above are selections of Alice in Wonderland that she illustrated.

now doesn't this just appeal to your inner artyness?? It is so beautiful and ambiguous. Hopefully I am going to use some of her work and illustrate my own photographs. Please go check out more of her work because honestly it is so lovely I would love to put it all on here! www.alicefletcher.co.uk

The sneaky preview... A few posts ago I showed a picture of paper flower that I made.. The instructions are coming at the weekend but in the mean time...

You will need. Plenty of this: and several of these:

Anyway. Bed Time now. I have had a shattering week and Friday is always my worst day just because of the crazy number of things I have going on!

21 November 2009

Crazy crazy times at the moment. The week has gone in a blur and before I know it we are already at Saturday. Can't believer blogging for scrapbookers has finished but have met some incredible ppl! Several things:

1st I am home this weekend so have enjoyed relaxing with my chinese friend who is staying with us. Came home and found this in my room...

I have loved this magazine for all of 3 years. I plucked up the courage to enter my layouts and as a result my confidence has grown. If it wasn't for this magazine I would never have found shimelle's blog and never taken this course. Therefore this blog wouldn't exist. I guess I've been trying to put off the fact that this mag won't be coming back. If any one has any ideas of a lovely scrapbook magazine that could fill a certain gap in my crafty world please let me know!

2. A new layout! woop woop. This is about my wonderful friend Rach. The journalling talks about her incredible faith and her love of worship and how much I admire that. Her trust and love of God is truly amazing and I am so lucky to be able to share that with her. This picture was taken at a birthday picnic we had. This candid shot was crying out to be scrapped...

3. I am part of a blog train with a real exciting title.. "17 again" inspired by the film, this lovely lady http://libertycottage.blogspot.com/ has asked 17 women to reminise about their youth. I meanwhile am the train driver! he he! This is so exciting as I can add my own persepctive to all of the ideas! keep checking back for more details!

4. A sneaky preview...

In the course of the next few days I'll post details on where I got the instructions to make these flowers. Last year I created them with Christmas paper and set each one on every ones plates at the beginning of dinner. Although they aren't specifically for christmas they work really well with a sprig of holly next to them.

Anyway have a lovely weekend folks, off to watch the rugby! lets hope England win!

17 November 2009

In response to Shimelle's prompt yesterday about starting a blog party, I've had this idea about something i could do but would love to get everyone's opinions on it. Basically I thought a group of say 10 people all make a Scrapbook page or Mini book on a certain topic say the title of a christmas song etc. Then on a date set we all post our layouts etc with a description of how we made them and the story behind it. Now here comes the genius plan.. Each of us will have the name of someone else in the group and will include with their post a link to this other persons layout. You get my picture? Like a big circle, we all link to each others layouts. That way anyone coming to look at our blogs will be go on tour of everyones layouts. What do you think? would love your opinions!
Thanks Abi xxxx

16 November 2009

A huge thank you to the people who wished me well about my back! It was so sweet and I really appreciated it. Afraid this has to be a quick post but I wanna share two layouts I made: The first is about my little brother (thank goodness he doesn't read this, he would probs kill me!) and the second was a spur of the moment page about me and my mum... Thanks for looking. loves xxx

15 November 2009

I have been meaning to talk about this person for a while now but didn't really know how to put it until last night. As you have seen from the above post I went to a school party last night. It didn't turn out quite like I thought. (No, I wasn't drunk cos I don't drink! but that is beside the point!) I have some weird back problem, kinda like cramp but really really painful. I've had blood tests, ultrasounds x rays but no one knows what it is. I doesn't come that often but when it does it kills.
Last night just happened to be the one when my back went. It's a really annoying pain cos u can do stuff and dance etc its just constantly throbbing. Anyway back to the story. By nature I refuse to be ill so carried on dancing with my boyfriend (who will for now be called the boy!) through the night it got worse but I still refused to let it bother me. Last song and it was pretty awful, the worst i've known it. I guess I pushed myself too far, but I ended up collapsing on the dance floor crying my eyes out in frustration and pain.
For the first time the pain I was going through was scaring me. Now if the boy hadn't been there I don't know how I would have got out cos at this stage I couldn't really walk, but the lovely incredible man he is, picked me up in his arms and carried me outside. He held me tight helping me stand and then slowly supported me all the way to his parents car who drove me up to my boarding house as a 5 min walk was out of the question. Thankfully i am so much better now, a long rest and hot water bottle helped and i pray that it won't get this bad again. But this isn't about me. It's about my amazing boy who understands me more than anyone. He is the only guy I know who gets scrapbooking wooh wooh! and is one of the calmest people ever. We often say to each other that I talk and he listens, which i guess is true! But which women doesn't do the talking??!! I know this post is a bit of ramble but it's really about expressing how incredibly thankful to him I am for helping me and for being there when I most needed him. My back is normally something I can deal with it's just when it's too much he's there and i count myself very very lucky.
On a lighter note! I have made a page on just how calm the boy is. There is a piccy below but to see it better the link to it is here: http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/pg.asp?cmd=display&layout_id=1517851

14 November 2009

we have a sixth form party this evening, with the theme of why did you come in that? what fun! being the arty girl I am, i got a big white t shirt and then sprayed it with paint. Wearing it with a belt, leggings and heels! very very excited! will try and take some piccys and then i feel a scrapbook page on the way. An apology. Being at skl i haven't got any scrappy stuff with me so no layouts at the mo, but I promise they will come! anyway off to play some music loudly and dance around the room getting ready with my best friend. Who else thinks that the getting ready is far more fun than the party? Also what is the best tune to party to?
Have a lovely weekend, thanks for reading
xxxx

12 November 2009

Today is wet, cold and windy. I have now decided that November is NOT my favourite time of year. Still..hockey was cancelled which can only be a bonus! Anyway back to the prompts. Recently a friend of mine showed me this incredible sight that made me roll around laughing please go check it out if your feeling down because it's brilliant. Here is one of the story's posted there...

"Today, I went to the vending machine and it proceeded to eat my money. I told it that it was rude and that it should be sorry, but I believe in second chances so I tried again. Not only did it not eat my money, it gave me 2 chocolate bars and an extra 50 cents. I forgive you vending machine." MLIA

10 November 2009

A very quick post before I run off to hockey. I had a piano lesson today and am playing this beautiful piece that is so difficult but a really good challenge. my piano teacher was explaing how i should move my fingers across the piano turned to me and said, "there's no need to stretch it you just need to fly." what an awesome quote. Little did he know the scrapbook pages that would be created....

7 November 2009

Yeah, this blogging shindig, is pretty cool, but when it takes three attempts, to put up my favourtite blogs, my patience starts to go slightly! Lol! Ok, back to crafty lovliness. Art journal is going really well. My book is beautiful. Hardback and french. It has gorgeous thick pages and hs obviosuly been soaked at one point so has that lovely crackly feel to it It was so lovely just going along all the book shelves, stroking pages, figuring out which one would work best with photos in it. I love being able to revive a book that would otherwise have been thrown away and for 50p, it's a bargain!

Tiring day at skl. We have saturday morning school, being private grrr... so no break today. Did go watch the boyfriend in his rugby match. I really wish he wasn't the one they lifted into the air! Thought I'd share an amusing story today. A recent fad in my skl is this new game where you have to get someone to say "mine" in response to a question. If they say it, they have to do 10 press ups! I have been caught out so many times now and even our deputy head is joning in, causing mass hilarity!

sorry bit of a long post but will share two things before I go off to bed. Firstly, a new photograph...

taken with a Nikon D40 and edited in photoshop. And secondly a scrapbook page..

5 November 2009

I was reading Shimelle's prompts today and have been really encouraged to talk about my day to day life. School is so caotic that I rarely get a moment to think, let alone blog! even when i do have free time, Work seems to take priority...well, lets start on today. Photography, first thing, makes abi very very happy! Seriously 2 hours behind a lens is sheer heaven! My topic at the moment is to do with identity and memory so have been looking at this lovely lady's work:

Please go check her out and her stories. The one that is making me running for my gesso is this...She found an address book lying on the ground. After photocopying it, she sent it back to the owner who's name was in the back. She then contacted the people in it asking them questions about the owner, so as to build up a picture of their life. She did all this through photographs. Now although that is now probs known as a breach of someones privacy. isn't it strangely romantic and so brilliantly scrapbooky??? If you are still interested look up her story of "The shadow"

Well...how does this relate to me? The School is holding an old book sale including some beautiful hardback french books and I have taken loads of pictures of my childhood. Bring on the paint! I am hoping to make some sort of art journal capturing my childhood memories. The picture below is one I have taken in response to her work. My life in Objects..

Anyway, a very long post, but hope it will be of some interest. I will try and post art journal pictures as and when.

Thanks to everyone who left comments, couldn't believe that people wanted to read what I said! At skl now, n sitting in break. I have religious studies next and have to hand in an essay grrrrr.. and getting one back which is probs worse! lol! sorry to anyone who's reading this n it hasn't improved, blogger is only unblocked at certain times, so i am limited to what i can do, sob sob. thanks for reading xxx

1 November 2009

Ok, first ever post. I really don't know who is gonna read this, but hey! Am taking http://www.shimelle.com/classes/618/a-new-online-scrapbooking-class-blogging-for-scrapbookers/, roughly translated as Blogging for scrapbookers, so hopefully this will improve over time. Am going back to boarding school this evening so to any one who might be reading this, posts will come when I can fit them in. Most probably at weekends. Will share recents layouts later, after the brother has stopped badgering me for the computer grrr...
Thanks for reading
xxx